A: If you don’t know what something does, don’t use it. George talks about a long discussion thread about mastering with

Audacity. He talks about settings. Use each tool separately and then listen to understand what each piece is doing. Levelator is a onestop, draganddrop that does something to files. It’s one size fits all. All these tools need to be tweaked by someone who understands audio engineering.

0:10:14 George comments on the process. Dan adds that there are better programs, like Adobe Audition or SoundForge, or on Mac, Twisted Wave.

0:11:30 TwistedWave has had an update that allows easy installation of “stacks (sets of

processing steps).

0:12:15 Audacity is like your first bike. It gets you around town, but there are better bikes out there.

0:13:50 Just because it’s free doesn’t mean Audacity is the right tool.

0:14:06 Q: There’s a lot of talk about ISDN alternatives. What about AudioTX? A: George says

AudioTX’s issue now is price, it has a “hasp” that you need but can’t replace, and it’s Windows

only. AudioTX is complicated to use for ISDN.

0:16:09 George shows all the boxes of parts needed to make AudioTX work.

0:16:35 George asks Dan if he was ever able to get AudioTX work on ISDN. Dan says, “Never.”

0:18:19 George points out ISDN gear is getting cheaper as ISDN dies a slow death.

0:19:19 Break while Dan and George “breathe on each other.”

0:20:18 Celestial Brothers moment from Grand Budapest Hotel.

0:20:35 They’re back.

0:21:30 Whittam’s World on shotgun mics. (Ep. 31:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ31DZBQg4)

0:28:59 Back to the guys. Discussion about shotgun mics follows. It’s not the equipment that

will get you the work.

0:30:40 They move on the the Scarlett 2i2. They recommended it once, but now there are

some quality issues popping up.

0:32:15 Price and reliability. Beware of bargain prices—QC may not be there.

0:33:00 Because they’re so cheap, buy two, to have a backup.

0:34:26 Break

0:35:55 SpongeBob!

0:36:18 They’re back with Courvo. He talks about his career on TV.

0:37:50 Dave describes his VO career and how he found the VO community so supportive.

0:39:42 Dave’s book, “More than Just a Voice,” is now out. The book pulls together the best of

his blogs over the last seven years. Dave discusses.

0:40:41 Where the title came from.

0:42:26 How is the book arranged? Dave describes the chapter organization.

0:44:29 George asks where he gets his inspiration for his blog.

0:47:00 Dave’s next book is on social media, but stuff happens so fast. He does print on

0:18:26 Q: What’s a good way to measure the “noise floor” of a personal studio.

A: George—there is no industry standard. He’ll listen to a voice (between -6 and -3 dB) and room tone. He’ll then normalize to 0 dB. He then takes the room tone and analyzes the peak level for “noise.” He feels -55 dB is a good level.

0:20:34 Dan joins in. Any noise below -55, -60, is much easier to remove with gating. Don’t use reduction; it destroys audio. Dan does a similar process. He also looks at the frequencies of the sounds in the lower end of volume.

0:22:46 George talks about noise gates.

Q: Isn’t -50 kind of high?

A: low frequency noise isn’t as loud.

0:23:56

Q: If through EQ you get to -60, should you take it down further?

A: It’s not your problem if you’re not a producer. But if you’re going to process your auditions, downward expansion can be useful. George doesn’t use a compressor without a downward expander.

0:25:54

Q: How do you export stacks in TwistedWave?

A: George describes that. In the Stacks window, you’ll see an option that says manage stacks. That will take you to a folder where you stacks are. Open the Stacks folder. See George’s video on importing stacks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Wn9OZa6Xo

0:28:23

Q: How do you change the settings in the effects stack?

A: If you want, go ahead, just don’t change the original. Play back as you change the settings to see what they do.

0:30:50 If you have a question email ewabshop@gmail.com, write Question in the subject line. They also have a voicemail box at ewabs.net.

0:31:56 Break

0:33:46 They’re back with Rudy Gaskins.

0:34:54 George asks Rudy how he picked his business location in NYC.

0:36:18 Dan asks Rudy to tell us about himself. He tells about his career. He got into sound engineering. He got his start recording sound effects for a Coppola film. He moved into directing and producing on NY TV. Then he went to ABC News doing promos and that got him into marketing. He then launched Push Creative.

0:54:20 The web address, voicearts.org (redirects to http://sovas.org/home-vaa/). The event is on November 9. Submission deadline: August 24 (it’s been extended). There’s a cost to submit. See http://sovas.org/rules-eligibility/#entry-fee for details.

0:55:37 Rudy explains how the fee helps support the quality of the award itself. The design includes a mic hanging upside down over a copy stand.